Hybridity and Hybridization
Year: 2017
Type: reference-entry
Abstract: Hybridity has a complicated history; however, it has always been associated with notions of identity and cultural origins. In its most rudimentary form, hybridity refers to a person produced when two or more identities “mix.” It first surfaced during colonialism, which hierarchized humans according to biological notions of race, beginning with “whiteness” at the top. Originally, the hybrid was marred by racist assumptions of impurity, and was subsequently marginalized for disturbing the conventional social order. In the 1980s and 1990s, the term was heavily debated, especially in postcolonial theory and art. These debates remapped hybridization as a positive and resistive form of cultural translation. Today, the applicability of the term is being newly critiqued, this time with greater attention to the power imbalances inherent in cultural exchange. Future implications of hybrid studies rest largely on how to address these imbalances, an exploration that continues to be inspired by practices of contemporary art.
Authors: Nikos Papastergiadis, Daniella Trimboli
Institution: The University of Melbourne
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2981978305